Exotic #02 - The Hieroglyphic Staircase Read Online Free PDF

workers.”
    “Had the night guard already left?”
    “He was at the front gate as I came in, getting ready to leave.”
    “Did he say anything unusual to you?”
    Elena shrugged, trying to remember, but she had detected nothing out of the ordinary. “No, he wished me a pleasant day, as is his custom.”
    “Do you normally go to the Hieroglyphic Staircase by way of the back of the Temple of Inscriptions?” His squint deepened and his tone took on a sharp edge that Elena didn’t like. Her headache made it difficult to think, and the inspector’s squint and tone was grating like fingernails across a blackboard.
    She shook her head. “No, I don’t usually go that way. But the morning was lovely, and I wanted to see the view from the top of the temple without climbing the narrow stairs in front. The back path is easier. The man I found must have thought so, too.”
    “Do you have any idea why someone might use that back path?”
    “The obvious answer would be the thief who was stealing the glyphs.”
    “Describe for me how the victim looked when you found him. Do not leave out any details, no matter how trivial they may seem.”
    Elena tried to see the scene again in her mind, tried to filter out all her judgments of the horror of the dead man, tried to see the scene as a scientist. How exactly had it looked?
    “I remember I was thinking about the theft of the hieroglyphs. I had my head down, watching the trail because that part of the path is rough with loose stones and bumps from the tree roots. First, I saw the feet.” She thought of the odd, laid-over angle of the ankles and how large the shoes looked.
    “I thought, why would anyone leave their running shoes on the path? I stopped and got that queer feeling people talk about when they say the hair stands up on the back of their necks. I knew something wasn’t right. Then I connected the feet with the rest of the body, and I thought, oh, someone’s sleeping here.
    “I turned to the right and took a step to go around the body because I didn’t want to disturb him. But I stopped. It was the way, I think, that his head was turned on his cheek. It was at an odd angle, lifted a little too high, his chin pointed up, because I remember his Adam’s apple protruded sharply.
    “Then I saw the back of his head, the matted hair, the blood. I screamed, but he didn’t wake up.”
    She paused, feeling her professional detachment slipping away. Her own reaction had surprised her. She could feel the screams reverberating through her body. She remembered covering her mouth and whimpering with hysteria, trying to find someone to help. This she did not share with the inspector. This was her own private horror.
    The inspector’s eyes were on her, watching her face. She took a deep breath and continued.
    “I kept calling for help, I don’t remember how many times. I ran to the top of the pyramid and screamed for someone to help until the two workers who come every morning to help at my work site came into view. I waved to them and told them what I had found. But they were scared. They said it was unlucky to find a dead person. They hung back. So I told them to go for the guard and the director for help. I stayed at the site by myself.”
    “How long before help came?” The inspector scribbled on his notepad.
    “The guard, it was the one who was on duty at night, came within maybe ten minutes. He checked the body for pulse and found none. He said the man was cold.”
    The inspector nodded his head. “We estimate the time of death around midnight. An unusual time to be viewing the pyramids, no?” he observed with a sudden grin that reminded Elena of the Joker in Batman, a smile that wasn’t sincere or real. She didn’t laugh at the man’s sudden turn of humor.
    He continued on, watching her unsmiling face. “What else did you notice?”
    Elena told him about the eyes and how the man was dressed. How he looked too neat to be lying dead on a footpath. “He wasn’t